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Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Meet an Irish American Pony Express rider

Happy St. Patrick's Day! What better way to celebrate the Irish than with a new release starring one of the Fitzpatrick clan?Expressly Yours, Samantha isthe latest novel in a wonderful historical romance series from bestselling authorBecky Lower. This tender love story is set against a brief but exciting period in American history when the Pony Express delivered mail cross-country.

Here's a blurb:

Samantha Hughes has one day to escape
from her wicked uncle, and a sign in the post office is her answer. She’ll cut
her hair to pose as a man and become Sam Hughes, a Pony Express rider.

Valerian Fitzpatrick doesn’t want the
weight of responsibility that his brothers have in the family business.
Fortunately, the Pony Express offers a chance to make his own way in the world.

He assumes his new buddy, Sam, is on
the run from the law, until she’s hit by a stray gunshot and he has to undress
her to staunch the wound. Friendship quickly turns to attraction—and more—but
when Sam’s uncle tracks her down, she is forced to run yet again.

Val’s determined to find her, but
will a future with Sam mean giving up the freedom he’s always craved?

Excerpt:

A sign at the post office caught Samantha’s eye. She feigned
disinterest as she snuck sidelong glances at the poster about the new Pony
Express, reading one line at a time.

Wanted: Young, skinny, wiry fellows.

She tore her glance from
the sign and studied the customers queued up in front of her. Another quick
look.

Not over eighteen.

She posted her letter and
turned away from the window, catching the last of the poster’s message.

Must be expert riders. Willing to
face death daily. Orphans preferred.

She was all of what they
wanted, except for one basic and glaring fact. She might be young, skinny, and
wiry, but she was no fellow. Samantha calmed her breathing as she walked away
from the post office, but her mind was buzzing with possibilities. Her ticket
out of the nightmare her life had become had just presented itself. She loved
horses and had a good hand with them. All she needed to do was to hide her true
identity—pretend to be a boy—and she was certain she could pull it off. Uncle
Jack had enough money to keep him busy until after midnight. Samantha figured
she had at least twelve hours to transform herself and get on the road.

Expressly Yours, Samantha is book seven of the Cotillion Ball series, a historical romance set in America during the mid-nineteenth century and following the romantic adventures of the Fitzpatrick family. You can purchase the entire series on Amazon: http://amzn.to/1FOy3Sd

Meet Becky

Amazon best-selling author Becky Lower has traveled the country looking
for great settings for her novels. She loves to write about two people finding
each other and falling in love, amid the backdrop of a great setting, be it on
a covered wagon headed west or in present day small town America.
Historical and contemporary romances are her specialty. Becky is a PAN member
of RWA and is a member of the Historic and Contemporary RWA chapters. She has a
degree in English and Journalism from Bowling Green State University, and lives
in an eclectic college town in Ohio with her puppy-mill rescue dog, Mary. She
loves to hear from her readers at beckylowerauthor@gmail.com.

Contact info:

Website: www.beckylowerauthor.com

Facebook: http://facebook.com/becky.lower

Twitter: http://twitter.com@BeckyLower1

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/authorbeckyl/

Blog: http://beckylowerauthor.blogspot.com

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6159227.Becky_Lower

Amazon Author page: http://amzn.to/1FOy3Sd

E.E.: What sound or noise do you love?

Becky: Five years ago, I brought a puppy-mill
rescue dog into my home. Having lived her first years in a cage and only being
handled when she was abused, she didn’t know the basics of doggie-dom–how to
climb stairs, where the john was, how to walk in a straight line. And she was
petrified of being picked up. I was determined, and every day, even if it took
20 minutes to wrangle her, I picked her up and held her. She’s still skittish,
after all these years, but when I pick her up now, and she sighs and relaxes on
my lap, it’s music to my ears.

E.E.: What’s your favorite kind of story to get lost in?

Becky: I have a fondness for
historical romance, but I also like a flashy contemporary every now and then.
Really, though, the genre’s not the determining factor. If I can get into the
characters and care about what happens to them, that’s where I get lost in the
story.

E.E.: If you were given a chance to
travel to the past where would you go and why?

Becky: I’d love to have
lived in the United States during the era of the wagon trains heading west each
spring. I read all the Little House books when I was young, and often thought
my dad and Pa Ingalls were similar, since my dad moved us from one house to
another every time the neighbors got too close.

E.E.: Which of your characters would
you most/least to invite to dinner, and why?

Becky: I would love to sit down to dinner
with the entire Fitzpatrick family from the Cotillion Ball Series. Charlotte is
my kind of mother–her love and pride in her children is all-important, even if
they don’t do what she wants. And she’s a lot of fun to be around. George is
the patriarch, quieter than Charlotte, but strong in his own way. You don’t
mess with George. And each of the
children has proven to be strong, determined men and women–just what you’d
expect at this time in America, when the country was being settled.

E.E.: What’s the best birthday (or any
holiday) present you ever received?

Becky: My dad had what we kids called his secret
shed. Whenever we developed an interest in something, be it playing the guitar,
snow skiing, whatever we needed to indulge our interest would show up within a
day or two. Then, being kids, we’d quickly tire of it, and back into the shed
it would go, until the next child asked for it. So my best holiday present was
getting an old guitar to plunk on.

E.E.: Describe an absolutely perfect
day.

Becky: Since winter is having a hard time letting go of my part of the country,
I’d have to say any day when I can walk outside in bare feet is an absolutely
perfect day.

E.E.: How did you come up with the idea for your book?

Becky: I started the Cotillion
Series the year after the tradition began in this country, which was 1855. I knew
that I wanted to write a long series with a family at its core, and I wanted it
set in America. I didn’t really give much thought to how the other books would
come together as I wrote the first one. I’m extremely fortunate that the era
was so chock-full of events, with the westward expansion and the Civil War,
along with the development of the railroads and other faster modes of
transportation. All gave me great historical events upon which to base each
book of the series. The latest one, Expressly Yours, Samantha, uses the Pony
Express as a backdrop for a tender love story.Becky is giving away two eBook copies of Expressly Yours, Samantha. Just answer our question and enter the raffle.Do you have a favorite character you'd like to invite to dinner (real or imaginary)? Who and why?

Award-winning author E.E. Burke writes romance from the heart woven with history the way it really happened in the wild American West. Her series Steam! Romance and Rails follows the stories of America's railroad dynasties.

Hi Vicki--You're right about the Pony Express only lasting a short time. It was one of the major surprises to me when I was researching the story. I thought it had gone on for years, but it really only lasted 18 months.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! :)I like the sound of Samantha's story... As for inviting a character to dinner... gosh that would be interesting... so many possibilities. LOL, maybe someone new each day from different genres.